


Rebuilding SHIELD

by MelyndaR



Series: Ashes series [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Norse Religion & Lore, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fitz is mute, Fitz still believes in Ward, Gen, Jane is an awesome little sis, Ward is a good guy who made bad decisions, coulson is Team Dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-09
Updated: 2015-02-09
Packaged: 2018-03-11 09:47:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 18,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3322925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rebuilding SHIELD isn't going to be easy, but it gets easier when you're surrounded by friends - and harder when you don't know if some within your walls are friend or foe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Herein we are absolutely and completely ignoring the general heartbreak that is season 2 of AoS and posting a big ole AU notice on this series! Read on, my lovelies!

Phil Coulson stood to the side of his team, silently observing the way they happily welcomed Fitz back into the swing of things. It had been a while since the engineerhad been with the team as a whole for any work-related purpose, between being unconscious and then self-conscious about his changes due to Ward's plunging him and Simmons into the sea. The youngest man on Phil's team had lost the ability to walk beyond the occasional shuffle to the bathroom, and he was left mute to boot. It was frustrating for Fitz, and the entire team, really, but they were grateful that he was alive – and getting very proficient with writing out what he wanted to say.

Now the six members of the team were back together again, and it was time to talk shop.

"We're supposed to rebuild SHIELD, right?" Trip asked rhetorically. "Would you like to tell me what we're going to do that with?"

"We've got this base now – the Playground – and from my observations and discussions with Agent Billy Koenig, it is an entirely functional SHIELD base with both a huge lab and more than enough space for an actual office section, along with four levels of living quarters, made to be functional for at least twenty-eight full-time residents. It's the best start we could hope for," Phil replied.

"You're going to love the lab, Fitzsimmons," Skye said helpfully, jabbing Trip in the ribs with her elbow and glaring at him sideways.

Fitz' eyebrows drew together as he scrawled something on his now ever-present notebook and held it up for Simmons to see from where they sat side by side.

Simmons shook her head. "Not yet; I've been busy."

Fitz rolled his eyes and pointed to his chest.

"Well, pardon me for wanting to stay by my partner's side!"

A smile tugged at Fitz' mouth and he put a hand on Simmons' knee – apologizing, probably.

"I promise you, after this meeting we'll go see the lab together," Simmons said, smiling at Fitz.

Fitz nodded and wrote down something else, holding it up to Phil. _What now?_

"Now we rebuild. And that needs to start with getting more people involved. Right now we've got our minimal public relations and managerial things matters taken care of by Koenig. Skye's our technological intel, Simmons is bio-chem, Fitz is our engineer, and May and Trip are our best options as field agents. We need more people; the greater range of talents we have, the better. Anyone have any ideas as to who we could trust to join our little operation?"

Fitz instantly jotted down a name and held it up to Phil, so that only he could see it. Phil, upon seeing the four letters, looked to Fitz and replied dryly, "I think we need to have you checked for lasting effects on your thought processes."

Fitz shook his head, lips thinning in frustration before he wrote _Best Field Agent._

"Agent May would not appreciate that sentiment, I'm sure."

_I'm right. You know it._

"He's a murderer and a traitor."

_We're not dead._

"Doesn't change what he did."

_You got another chance at the life you had, why not give him the same thing?_

"Because we weren't a part of his life, we were a part of one of his missions."

_For a dead man. Why not refocus his energy into the good of SHIELD?_

"Because every woman in this room would kill him if he stepped into their line of sight."

Fitz looked sideways at Simmons, a skeptical expression on his face.

"He did this, you know," Phil reminded Fitz, leaning forward to tap the wheelchair the engineer was sitting in.

"Are you talking about _Ward_?" May asked sharply.

Fitz winced, writing down _Only following orders like a good soldier – which is what we need. Phil just sighed, and when Fitz realized he was winning his superior over, he added, And he needs a second chance. We should give it to him._

"How is it that you, of all people, are even saying that?" Phil asked in confusion.

_Because it's true. Please. Just one more chance._

Phil pinched the bridge of his nose before saying, "I'll think about it – but that's all I'm saying on the subject right now. Do we have any more suggestions?"

"Romanoff and Barton," May said quickly.

"Agent Hill?" Skye added.

"Steve Rogers already knows you're still alive, right?" Trip questioned.

"Yeah, I've thought of him," Phil said.

May snorted, smirking at him when she said, "Of course you have."

"All of them are great candidates." Phil said. "So who do we start with?"

Fitz flipped to the first page he'd shown Coulson and held it back up, staring demandingly at his superior.

_Ward_

"I'll use his scalp for target practice," May said sharply.

"Boil his eyes and make him eat them?" Skye suggested.

Simmons added darkly, "I will personally cut off his legs."

At Simmons' statement, Fitz tipped his head to the side and looked at his partner a little sadly, gently shaking his head.

_We're better than that. It's time to forgive. It's time to rebuild. So let's forgive him and rebuild not just SHIELD, but relationships with him. Even the first church had a Judas in it._

Most of them looked at least halfway convinced when Fitz showed the paper to them all, but May inevitably pointed out, "Judas betrayed freaking Jesus Christ and then went off and killed himself."

_Then we're all deities here. If you want to, think of this: If he does get hurt while working with us, you'll get to see his pain._

Fitz looked at May dryly, letting her see the words. He rolled his eyes when a smile tilted at the corners of her mouth and she said, "Now, that I can get behind."

Fitz turned the paper to Skye, arching his eyebrows. The hacker scanned the paper and sighed, eventually agreeing, "Fine."

"You're crazy," Trip informed Fitz. "I'm not saying you're wrong, but I just don't get you. You should be in front of May in the line to kill this guy, and yet you're championing him. If we want to bring him back in, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt as being one of Garret's reform- capable goons, but I'm with Coulson on getting you that brain checkup."

Fitz grinned, and Coulson realized that, despite all of the misgivings floating almost palpably around the room, the engineer was going to get what he wanted.


	2. Chapter 2

"Fine," Coulson decided, realizing Fitz wouldn't leave the subject alone until he'd reached a verdict. "I know where he's at; I can go and pick him up tomorrow using the jet. May, I'll want you accompanying me. Skye, I want you to complete mission impossible and track down Barton and Romanoff. After she was blown out of the water with SHIELD, Barton slipped under the radar alongside her, and it won't be a walk in the park to pick up their scent if they don't want to be found." He took a deep breath, trying to think all of this through as he spoke. "Rogers, last time I heard, was still somewhere in New York."

_Winter Soldier?_

"Fitz is right; the Winter Soldier – now known as simply James Barnes – is with him. That's why I'm a little more leery to just go grab Cap; he won't leave Barnes out after having just reconnected with him, and we'd have to take them both. Considering Barnes is formerly HYDRA, I think I have a right to these reservations."

"I thought it was verified that Barnes had been under mind control?" Skye asked.

"It was, but I'd still rather talk to someone who's met him personally before I open up SHIELD to him. That's why I want Agent Romanoff here; she would know."

"What about Agent Hill?" May asked.

"Hill could potentially be more complicated than just simply calling her back in. She works for Stark now, and I doubt quite seriously that she could just bail on him without raising his suspicions. He is entirely capable of finding _everything_ out if he wants to look for it, and I don't feel like him finding out about my 'resuscitation' through a good hack."

"Then why not just bring Stark in too?" Trip asked. "Reassemble the Avengers to help us get SHIELD back up and running?"

"It's not a bad idea," May mused.

"No, it's not, but we've got to pace ourselves a little bit here," Phil said. "That means we start with you and I picking up Ward tomorrow. Skye, do you think you could give me Romanoff and Barton by the end of the week?"

Skye, who had already taken out her laptop, set it on her crossed legs, and gotten to work, arched her eyebrows as she looked at him over the screen of her computer, saying excitedly, "I think I can get it to you by the time you get back with Ward. I'm not sure, but if I log into what's left of SHIELD's database under your info-"

"You know my login and password?"

Skye rolled her eyes in an _of course_ sort of way and continued as if he hadn't spoken, "It's really easy to find them. Like, all that's between us and them is this code that I'd bet you anything is translated as coordinates. I think they wanted you to be able to find them."

Phil smiled. "Great to hear."

"Yeah, but it's in code," Trip reminded him.

"Then the four of you work on cracking it while May and I see to retrieving Ward."

"Yes, sir," Trip answered, leaning to look over Skye's shoulder at whatever was on her laptop's screen.

"Another thing," Phil brought up. "On a less SHIELD-related note: we've all kind of been vagabonding our way through this base so far. There's five levels worth of bedrooms, and yet I haven't seen a one of them be truly claimed in the past month and a half that we've been here. I want you guys to start trying to settle in a little bit here, okay? You work better, I think, if you have space that is just yours to lay claim to. So humor me."

"You want to be on the floor closest to the labs, right?" Simmons asked Fitz.

Fitz nodded eagerly.

"That's the fifth floor down. The labs are on level six, above the office space," Phil supplied.

"Is there room for me there too?" Skye asked him.

"There are seven bedrooms on each level."

"Cool," she replied, jumping up with her laptop and heading in that direction.

Trip jumped up and followed her, saying, "I guess I'll join you three."

Fitz and Simmons disappeared after them, heading off to explore the lab, and May turned to Phil with a wry twist of her lips, asking, "Do we want to stay with the kids?"

"You can do whatever you want to," Phil said, standing from his chair.

"Well, I want to look out for you, wherever in this place you end up."

"I'm not like Fitz, May; I don't need a nursemaid."

"Fitz 'would not appreciate that sentiment, I'm sure'."

Phil rolled his eyes at her. "Fine. I guess I'll stay on level three and keep Ward there with me, away from the others."

"Good choice," Melinda agreed, nodding. "I'll join you there."

"You're going to live in the same space as Ward?" Phil asked skeptically.

"Sure," she shrugged. "More ways to get under his skin that way."

"You're a cruel woman, Agent May."

"Not cruel," she grinned. "Just vindictive, and considering what he caused in Fitz, I think he deserves whatever he gets, don't you?"

"Probably," Phil said. "But I almost wonder if seeing Fitz mute and in that wheelchair won't be enough of a punishment for him."

May scoffed, slapping him on the shoulder and calling him a softy as she started to leave the room.

He smiled lightly at her retreating form, mumbling, "Yeah, for some."

She froze at the door, having apparently heard his remark. She turned to look over her shoulder, a smirk playing about her mouth as she shut the door to the rest of the world before asking, "You're not irritated that I want to watch out for my partner, are you?"

"No, not at all."

"Good," she turned the rest of the way around and walked to stand in front of him, revealing in a low voice, "Because that's not the only reason I want to live with you."

Phil smiled as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to him. "I know."

"Glad to hear it, partner," she answered with a smile that was becoming not so rare for him before she kissed him.


	3. Chapter 3

"Look, before we get off of this plane, I just want to thank you guys for giving me another chance. I've told you everything I know about HYDRA, and I'm really grateful you're giving me a second chance at helping to bring them down. Working with the counselors at the prison has actually been really helpful in getting my priorities and loyalties straight."

Standing across from where Ward was sitting in the jet, Melinda rolled her eyes at his little speech, advising, "Don't thank us yet; you've still got the others to tangle with."

Ward winced, asking, "How bad off are Fitz and Simmons?"

"Simmons is physically fine and doing as well as could be expected mentally;" Phil said. "Fitz can barely get himself to the restroom when necessary and he cannot talk. Something destroyed his larynx somehow."

Ward eyed Melinda as he muttered, "I know how that feels."

Melinda just grinned dryly at him. She was still proud of that beating she'd given him.

"So, what do the others think of you bringing me back onto the team?"

Phil answered, "Trip is open-minded, Skye has kept her mouth closed about it so far, Fitz is still totally on your side – which you do not deserve at all, by the way – and Simmons has threatened numerous times since yesterday afternoon to cut your legs off."

"I'm kind of looking forward to what she does to you when she sees you again," Melinda purred.

"Can we at least try and get along, Agent May?" Ward asked. "For Fitz's sake?"

Melinda snapped, "Because now you care ever so much about him?"

"I think I cared about the kid even when I was still working with Garret. He's the closest thing I've ever had to what I would consider a real brother."

"And what does it say about you that even that relationship was a lie?"

Ward glanced away from her then, and she was surprised to see a flicker of genuine shame in his eyes. "I'm sorry, okay? I will say that to you, and to you, Agent Coulson, and to Skye and Trip, and Simmons, and Fitz as many times as I need to for you all to believe me! For the first time in forever, when I met you guys, I wanted something for myself, but I still went along with Garret, at the sacrifice of what I wanted, and it means the world to me that you're letting me back in. Please, understand that all I want to do is prove that to you."

"Well, it's a good thing you want that so bad," Coulson said flatly. "Because you've got a long road ahead of you to get back anyone's trust. Starting as soon as this plane lands, I want you on better than your best behavior. Now buckle up, we're landing. And Ward? If you lay even one finger in any way on anyone who comes into this team or is already here, I will end you. Don't doubt it."

Ward swallowed. "No, sir."

Melinda smiled to see Simmons and Skye waiting for the three of them when the jet landed.

Skye had her laptop in hand and was practically bouncing on her toes. The moment Phil stepped onto solid ground, she said excitedly, "Johann and Rebekka Katt."

"Excuse me?" Phil asked.

"104 Zweite Street, Linz, Austria."

"You found Barton and Romanoff," Phil realized.

Skye grinned. "I did."

And just like that, he was gone, off down some hallway to work out a plan for retrieving the two assassins – leaving Melinda and Simmons alone with Ward. The man in the room seemed to notice this, shifting uncomfortably on his feet as he glanced nervously between the women.

They let him speak first, and he said, "Simmons, I just really want to apologize for everything that's happened. I never meant to hurt you or Fitz."

"No," Jemma said with a tight smile. "You meant to kill us." She took a deep breath, continuing, "But that's in the past now. It's time to move on and focus on rebuilding SHIELD. Do you want a tour?"

"Looks pretty familiar, actually," Ward said, making the obvious comparison to Providence base.

"Yeah, but this base has a better training facility, right, Agent May?"

Simmons had something up her sleeve, but Melinda wasn't afraid in the least bit to go along with whatever it was, so she said, "It's true. You'd like it, Ward."

"Come on," Simmons looped an arm companionably through one of Ward's arms and half dragged him into the elevator and down to the training center.

May followed at a distance, momentarily wondering if Simmons hadn't rigged the training center to explode on top of Ward or something. Maybe the biochemist had prepared some sort of a gas chamber for him there?

When Simmons and Ward reached the training room, Simmons dragged Ward into the boxing ring, claiming it was the best vantage point from which to view the whole room.

"See, just spin around slowly and take it in." Simmons said sweetly – way too sweetly. "Aren't I right?"

"Yeah," Ward agreed. "You are. This is a nice setup."

When Ward turned his back to Simmons, the little scientist attacked him. Ward yelped as Simmons sprang onto his back and clawed at his cheeks, neck, and eyes. Ward fell to his knees in the ring before rearing back. Simmons scrambled away for a half of a second before she charged him again, throwing him onto his back as she sat on his stomach and pummeled him with her fists.

Melinda watched this all with barely hidden glee, her hand on her gun in case Ward tried to do something to hurt Simmons. But he didn't, she realized. Though a little winded by the air having been forced out of him, Ward seemed barely surprised, and his inaction was surprising Melinda even more than that. Ward lay with his arms outstretched uselessly at his sides, leaving himself completely vulnerable as he _let_ Simmons scream and punch and scratch at him until he was bleeding and sporting a black eye. This went on until Simmons wore herself out, her screams dissolving into sobs and her blows stopping so that she could wrap her arms around her waist, almost doubling over while still straddling Ward as her anger finally gave way to grief.

When Simmons devolved to this point, Ward gently slid out from under her and sat down beside her in the middle of the boxing ring, looking pained and at a loss for words. Eventually he repeated his earlier words to Simmons, saying in a voice rough with self-hatred, "I am so sorry."

This only brought on another round of tears from Simmons, but when Ward moved to wrap her in his arms, she didn't bother to resist. At this rate, Fitzsimmons might just be getting their big brother back. And as Melinda watched, she realized that this repentant man was the Ward that they were getting back on their team. She might just be able to be civil to this version of Ward.


	4. Chapter 4

"Well, I'm not sorry," Simmons eventually sniffled disagreeably.

"Not even when you see what a shiner my eye is going to be sporting tomorrow?" Grant asked, carefully trying to lighten her mood.

"No. I'll like to see it."

Simmons was almost pouting, and Grant was biting back an amused smile as he nodded, saying resolutely, "Good."

"Good?" Simmons repeated in confusion, looking up at him for the first time since she'd dissolved into tears.

"Yes, good." Grant smiled at her – his little sister, as it seemed he might actually be inclined think of her as. "I deserved that."

"Yes, you did," Simmons agreed. "And I'm not done being angry with you over it, either."

"I guess the fact that I saved your life once is cancelled out by the fact that I tried to drown you, huh?" Grant halfway joked.

"Not cancelled, just evened out. We're even." Simmons paused before she admitted, "But that meltdown wasn't for me."

Grant raised his eyebrows curiously, prompting her to continue. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw May narrow her eyes a bit with her own curiosity, and he shot her a look that Simmons didn't notice, asking the Asian to get lost. She did, and then Grant turned his attention back to Simmons, whose shoulders his arm was still around as she seemed to struggle to say whatever came next.

"Fitz," Simmons said eventually, voice getting teary. "He…" she took a deep breath and started over. "We sank to the bottom of the ocean, ninety feet down and no way out – or so we thought at first. Eventually, we made a plan to break the glass and swim out, but it was too far to go without breathing, and he knew it. He found a pressurized oxygn mask there, but there was only one breath in it. Two swimmers, one breath. He'd been doing math the whole time, and it was pretty obvious those numbers wouldn't work." Simmons slammed her eyes closed, breathing shallowly for a second to keep her tears at bay, and Grant felt bile crawl into his own throat when she continued. "He… Fitz said I had always been the better swimmer anyway. He-" A deep, shuddering breath, and then she whispered, "He told me that he loved me. That he'd never had the courage to tell me so, and that if we were going to be this close to death, he wanted to show me he loved me instead. He made me take the mask and then he pushed the button that broke the window. And that will be the last time he ever did more on his feet than just shuffle and stumble his way towards something, the last words he ever spoke."

Simmons wiped at her eyes, letting her recounting of the story hang in the air between them.

At a loss for words, he repeated helplessly for the third time, "I'm sorry, Simmons."

"Yeah, well, I can't forgive you yet, Ward. Not yet."

"I don't expect you to," he answered honestly. "I don't expect any of you to."

"Coulson's not going to forgive us either if we don't hurry up and meet up with the others soon," she said, flipping the conversation easily.

Grant nodded and got to his feet, offering her a hand up and smiling weakly when she allowed him to help her.

"Thank you for telling me," he murmured.

She nodded before revealing, "You're the first one who's heard the whole story."

"So what parts do I pretend didn't happen?"

"All of it happened, Ward."

"Well then," he asked, holding apart the bars of the boxing ring so that she could climb out. "What part don't the others know about?"

"They don't know…" her cheeks tinted pink. "What Fitz said."

"I hate to break it to you," Grant said as they headed towards the elevator. "But everyone knows that Fitz loves you." As they stepped into the elevator, he asked the million dollar question. "What we haven't quite figured out is: do you love Fitz?"

Simmons glanced up at him before turning her gaze straight ahead, mouth twitching deviously as she suggested, "Why don't you ask your thoroughly mauled reflection that question."

"Touché," Grant chuckled.

The smile stayed where it was until they hit the fourth floor, where the others were gathered in the living room.

The moment Coulson laid eyes on him, the new director of SHIELD turned to May, saying her name sharply.

"What?" May asked Coulson.

Coulson said in exasperation, "You promised me you wouldn't hurt him!"

"I didn't do it!"

"May, he's got a black eye. You and Simmons were the only ones with him, and out of the two of you, you're the only one who could've done-" he pointed emphatically to Grant's eye. " _That much_ damage."

"I think I may even have a cracked rib," Grant revealed, looking out of the corner of his eye at Simmons.

"Still not sorry," the scientist said confidently, brushing by Ward, Coulson, and May to sit down beside Fitz who was sitting in a plain metal wheelchair.

Grant blinked, forcing his gaze away from the chair – _Your fault –_ and to the face of the man it held. Talk about mistake. Seeing the hope, heartbreak, and sense of betrayal in the younger man's eyes nearly took his breath away just as thoroughly as Simmons' attack had. So he looked at Trip instead. A welcome breath of nothing more than the expected wariness, although he was at least trying to hide it. And then there was Skye. Gosh, Skye. She was as hard to look at as Fitz, and wasn't that just stupid considering the way he'd manipulated Agent May?

They were waiting for him to say something. Why did they all want him to open his mouth? They obviously had a lot of choice words they wanted to share with him, but he couldn't think of anything to say. He was suddenly kind of grateful to Simmons' for her such uncharacteristic yet swift way of making her opinion known and her speediness in getting it behind them.

"Guys, I'm going to say this a lot, I have a feeling, so I'm just going to start now. I'm sorry for everything that I've done to every one of you. Give me this second chance and I'll show you a different, better Grant Ward. I promise."


	5. Chapter 5

_The next day_

" _Hallo? Herr_ Katt _?_ " There was a man in a suit standing in front of "Johann and Rebekka's" apartment when the two of them came down the hallway as they came home from work. Natasha looked warily at Clint, hand sliding casually into her purse and the gun she kept there as the man knocked again on their door, calling out, "Rebekka?"

"Can I help you?" Clint called out as he and Natasha headed towards their unexpected visitor.

The man whirled to face them and Clint had the unusual urge to run to him when he saw who it was. Even after having not seen his old handler for two years, he would recognize him anywhere.

" _Hallo, mein_ old friend," Phil smiled at them. "Do you mind if we go inside? There's something I'd like to discuss with you."

"Of course," Natasha said, stepping past the boys and unlocking the apartment. "Welcome to Linz, Herr… Coulson, is it?"

"Rogers now, actually; Steve and I were married last year," Phil deadpanned in response to Natasha's sarcasm.

Clint snorted as he shut the door behind the three of them. "Only in your dreams."

"He's actually not my type, unfortunately."

"Could've fooled me." Geez, what was he doing? Coulson obviously had more important things to do than stand here and go back and forth with him.

Of course, Natasha beat him to pointing that out. "Nice to see you too, Coulson, but why are you here?" she asked, leaning against the kitchen counter of their tiny apartment.

"I confess," Clint added. "I wasn't actually expecting to ever see you again, especially not once SHIELD nosedived."

Coulson sighed, crossing his arms over his chest in a habit of his that had long become familiar to Clint. "That's just it. SHIELD's not as gone as most people think."

"Meaning what exactly?" Natasha queried.

"Fury – who I assume you both know is still alive – gave me a box of things to get SHIELD back up and running. Right now we're operating out of the first piece of information that was in that box – coordinates to an underground bunker in Kansas City. And 'operating' is a pretty generous word for it. Right now I've got eight people, including myself, and we're still in the earliest phases of recruitment. You two were among the first people I thought of bringing back into SHIELD. So, what do you say?"

Clint looked sideways at Natasha, who stared back at him with worry swimming in her eyes. She wasn't going to tell Coulson, which meant if Coulson was finding out, Clint had to be the one to tell him.

Clint sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he turned to Coulson and opened his mouth.

Guessing that some form of a refusal was about to come out, Coulson added, "Come on, you two, you've only had this cover for a few months; there's no way you're so attached to it already that you don't want to come back to work. You're more professional than that."

"It's not that," Clint said slowly.

"Than what is it?"

"It's just that…" Clint looked to Natasha for help.

She continued, "When I blew all my covers, Clint came to pick me up at Fury's grave, and…"

"And we decided-"

"-Completely spur of the moment-"

"-And only allowing that we thought SHIELD was over for good-"

Coulson snapped at them then, "I have only been in this apartment for under five minutes, and you are already giving me a headache. _What_ did you two do?"

"What did you find out about our recent movements?" Natasha asked hesitantly after a long pause.

"Skye – my hacker – only found your cover documents and stories. Johann is a security guard and Rebekka is a diner waitress. That's all I know." His eyes narrowed as he thought of a question and asked it. "Now, I assumed that in a long-term cover like this, you were doing the sibling act you've used before. Am I wrong?"

Clint glanced at the floor before he – in perfect sync with Natasha – held up his left hand. Both his ring finger and hers sported gold bands.

"Why is that part of the cover a big deal this time?" Coulson asked. "You've used a husband and wife ruse many times before."

"It's… not a ruse, Coulson," Clint said carefully. "That's what we did after we left the graveyard. We went to the Caribbean and got married."

Coulson eyed them both, taking a deep breath before he asked, "Legitimately? You two are legally now husband and wife?"

Clint nodded slowly and Coulson leaned heavily back onto the counter, closing his eyes and putting his head in his hands.

"It's been coming for years," Clint told him. "You know that. Heck, you had us pegged before _we_ had us pegged, Coulson."

"It's not that," Coulson replied, looking back up at them. "You're right, and I'm honestly not surprised. But do you think that you can still work as partners for SHIELD in the same setting and circumstances as you did before you put those rings on your hands?"

"Yes," Natasha answered instantly, and Clint nodded in agreement.

"Then what's the holdup here?" Coulson asked wearily.

Clint and Natasha exchanged another look, and that's when Coulson realized. "No. No. Crap. Bloody d*** godforsaken h***, no! You're not!" he turned desperately to Natasha, ordering feebly, "Agent Romanoff, tell me you're not."

"Congratulate us, Coulson," Clint said, smiling weakly as he went and wrapped an arm around his wife's waist as a show of unification on their part. "We're going to have a baby."

Coulson actually groaned, loud, long, and desperate as he dropped his head back into his hands.

"I'm just past the first trimester," Natasha offered. "That's out of the greatest danger zone for miscarriages."

"Is Barton the father?" Coulson muttered – in a hopeful tone, Clint thought before bristling at the question.

"Yes, of course!" he answered for Natasha.

"Good. Does that mean that you're still capable of being the undefeatable duo that I know and rather desperately need on my side right now?"

Clint and Natasha shared another look before he repeated, "Yes."

"Good. Then that's all I need to know. Let's get you back stateside before one of the three of us gets smart and changes our mind about this. I'll tell you about your new coworkers on the way. Oh, and Natasha? I need you to help me make a decision regarding Lieutenant Barnes before we land."


	6. Chapter 6

Skye squealed with glee as she walked with Agent May down to meet the incoming jet carrying Coulson, Romanoff, and Barton. "You're telling me – with one hundred percent honesty – that _Simmons_ – not you – did that number on his face?"

"Don't forget my ribs, too," Ward said, coming up behind the two women.

As he moved to walk at her side, Skye rolled her eyes at him – his very presence ticking her off – and asked bitingly, "Don't you have traffic to go play in somewhere?"

"Garret isn't alive to order me to do it," he shot back.

She bit her cheek and stalked ahead of him, May following at her heels.

"You know," the Asian muttered under her breath. "I hate to say something positive about him, but he just let Simmons lose it on him. He never even tried to defend himself."

"Good for them," Skye said dryly. "Maybe he can get his tongue in her mouth too."

Turning when she heard them approaching the flight pad, Simmons innocently asked Skye, "Did you say something?"

"Just wondering how much longer until the jet's going to get here," May lied for Skye, the last part of her sentence drowned out as the plane made its grand entrance.

After Coulson made the round of introductions between the two Avengers and his team, Skye trailed behind the three as the new director showed the assassins the range of bedrooms that were still available to them.

"This fifth floor is where Fitzsimmons, Trip, and Skye live," he said when they got to the appropriate level.

Skye chimed in helpfully, "The four of us call it 'the kids' level,' since Coulson is kind of… well, like the dad of our crazy, dysfunctional… family?"

Agent Barton nodded at her, mercifully ignoring the fact that she felt like stuffing her foot in her mouth as he replied, "I like it."

"There's still three unclaimed bedrooms, if you want."

"Well, I'd like the two of us to take one of them over. Is that okay, Tasha?" he asked his partner.

Agent Romanoff agreed easily. "Sure."

Skye paused, asking with slow care, "Wait… you two are… together? Like that?"

"That's what the marriage certificate tells us, anyway," Agent Romanoff said.

"The wedding certificate that you didn't tell me about," Coulson added, a hint of irritation in his voice as he looked down at Skye.

"I didn't look below the surface of what was offered with their covers, so I didn't know," Skye winced. "Sorry."

"It's fine," Coulson said, instantly shrugging it off. "It's not like I'm really surprised about it anyway… although I do believe I failed to congratulate the two of you. So 'congratulations.'"

"Thanks," Agent Romanoff smirked.

"Okay then," Coulson said. "Skye and I will leave you to it. I've got a call to make, and if all goes well, we'll be having a team meeting in my office in a couple of hours."

"Are you going to go call Steve and Barnes?" Agent Romanoff queried.

Skye rolled her eyes at the suppressed smile that twitched at the edges of Coulson's mouth as he answered, "Yeah, as soon as Skye gets me his number."

Skye heard Agent Romanoff mutter "have fun, fan boy" as she walked out of their bedroom behind Coulson, and she couldn't help but smile. Her boss was going to have a swooning fit if Captain America agreed to move into this base and help them rebuild SHIELD.

* * *

"Steve agreed to come, didn't he?" Agent Romanoff asked the second she laid eyes on a very happy Coulson when she stepped with Agent Barton into Coulson's office.

"Yes, indeed he did." Coulson turned to survey every member of his growing team in turn as he added, "And he's bringing Lieutenant Barnes with him to join us as well." When Agent Barton leaned against a wall and nodded his approval, Coulson turned to Agent Romanoff and asked, "Do you mind going with me on the jet to New York City tomorrow to pick them up?"

"No problem," Agent Romanoff agreed easily.

"Great."

"What do we do next?" Trip asked.

Coulson considered this in silence for a minute before he sighed, deciding, "Our next best step is getting Hill on board, but the idea of even _possibly_ having Stark here makes me nervous."

"Ask Pepper to come too," Agent Romanoff suggested.

"What?" Coulson scoffed.

"Get Pepper to tag along," Romanoff repeated. "Trust me, Coulson; I've seen the way she handles him. Having his girlfriend accompany him for babysitting duty is going to be the best decision you'll ever make if he ends up here."

Coulson turned to May, ordering, "Tomorrow, give Hill a call while Romanoff and I are off picking up Rogers and Barnes. See if she thinks she could relocate here _without_ raising Mr. Stark's suspicions."

May nodded.

Coulson turned back to Agents Romanoff and Barton then, asking in a rather pointed tone, "Now, before we dismiss this little meeting, is there anything that you'd like to tell these guys about yourselves? Besides the fact that they shouldn't be alarmed if they suddenly start hearing an overabundance of noise coming from the air vents?"

Barton shrugged casually and Romanoff shook her head very innocently. Skye didn't miss the way they were both holding their hands so that their ring fingers were out of sight, though.

"Let me put it this way:" Coulson tried again, his tone sharpening a little more. "Is there anything you want to tell them before you, Natasha, get back in a SHIELD uniform and it becomes visible to the whole world?"

"Nothing's going to be visible," Romanoff said, eyes throwing sudden daggers at her superior as she flushed while the eyebrows rose on all three of the other women in the room.

"No way!" May groaned as Jemma squealed with glee. Skye didn't quite know what to do when she realized what Coulson was implying, so she just sat there, feeling a little stunned. Thus she was the first to realize that what they were discussing was going straight over the heads of Ward, Fitz, and Trip.

"What is it?" Trip asked.

"You're pregnant, aren't you?" Jemma asked Agent Romanoff happily.

A nearly embarrassed smile played across the redhead's expression as she admitted, "Yeah."

_Congratulations!_ From Fitz.

Then the perfect words of acceptance from Jemma: "Now we'll get to add a baby to our family too!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Skye noticed Coulson just sit back in his chair and watch them all with a smile on his face. She got the feeling that he was beginning to feel a touch of hopefulness for his little "family." Well, good; at least now Skye knew she wasn't the only one who felt that way.


	7. Chapter 7

That evening, the six residents of the "kids' level" were all congregated around their nearly empty plates at the living room's coffee table when Romanoff said, "There's a couple of things Clint and I would like to talk to you about, assuming that Coulson is telling or has already told May and Ward these things. One:"

Natasha paused, looking nervously to Clint, but then Jemma Simmons supplied in that soft tone of hers, "You're married to one another, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Clint and Natasha said at the same time.

_Okay. No problem._ God bless Fitz. And then he wrote, _What's the second thing?_

"That," Natasha said. "Is where Clint comes in."

And she looked to him, effectively giving him the floor.

He took a deep breath, nervous because this subject wasn't really one he generally chose to breach, and turned his attention to Fitz, saying, "That's actually something I wanted to talk to you about. You're a pretty smart kid, right?"

"Yes," Simmons answered quickly.

"Are you any good at picking up languages?"

Fitz nodded, shrugging at the same time, which Clint took to mean "I guess."

"Do you… know sign language?"

Fitz bit his lip, thinking for a second before he shook his head slowly. He paused, eyebrows knit together as he thought for a second before holding up his hand in the form of a fist, then crossed his thumb over his open palm, before making a talon-like shape with his hand.

"A, b, and c," Clint nodded approvingly before showing Fitz four more signs. "F-i-t-z."

Fitz smiled, then wrote a word on his notebook, holding it up for Clint to see. _Why?_

"Would you like to be able to get rid of that notebook, or at least not use it as much? It seems like learning to sign might be easier and quicker after awhile. Tasha and I already know American sign language, and I happen to know Coulson knows a little too."

Fitz pointed to the word on his paper. _Why?_

Feeling quite a bit more self-conscious than he let on, Clint tapped his own ear and Fitz's eyes widened as he scrawled out another word and cupped his hands around it so that only Clint could see what it was. _Deaf?_

"Can I…?" Clint gestured towards the notebook and Fitz handed paper and pen over willingly.

_I've got a cochlear now. Not many people that I worked with know I have hearing problems – only Nat, Coulson, Hill – and I'd like to keep it that way._

Fitz took the notebook back, scanned the words, nodded his understanding at Clint, and then quickly wrote down something else before handing the paper back to Clint with a smile.

_You learned to sign so you could communicate with the strange, reclusive maintenance man among the circus people, then, if anyone asks me about it._

Clint's mouth twitched as he admitted, "I might actually like you, kid."

Fitz held up his pointer finger for Clint to wait a moment then ripped out of his notebook the page that held their on-paper conversation. He gestured for Clint to follow him and then rolled himself into what Clint realized was his bedroom with the archer trailing behind. Clint actually grinned when Fitz went over to a shredder in the corner of the room and fed the paper through.

The engineer smiled as he turned back to Clint. _Delete key. Don't have that with spoken words._

"See, now I really like you – maybe even enough to teach you archery, too, if you want. I bet that'd work even with your chair." Not that he had any idea why he wanted to help this kid, but he did either way.

Fitz thought this through for a second before his gaze shot back to the living room with a sudden mischievous glint to them and he nodded vigorously.

"Okay, what about the sign language, then?"

Fitz nodded to that too as they made their way out of his bedroom.

"Alright – but only if you'll tell me why you want to learn the archery; that look you got in your eye makes me nervous."

Fitz made a face, complaining, That's going to be a lot of writing.

"Condense it then."

_To give Coulson a headache._

Clint snorted as they made it back to the living room doorway, asking, "You guys really are just four more of his kids, huh?"

Fitz's smile just widened.

* * *

"What do you want, Melinda?" Phil asked, glancing at her through his bedroom mirror when she came in while he was halfway through undressing for the night. Something had been on her mind since the meeting earlier about Rogers and Barnes, and here's to hoping she was ready to tell him what that was.

Shutting his bedroom door behind herself, she asked, "Am I being _too_ cautious to say that I like the idea of keeping Barnes on this level like we are Ward, that way we can keep an eye on him too? Just in case… with his HYDRA past?"

"The captain is going to want to stay with his friend, I'd wager," Phil pointed out.

"We've got room for them both on this level. That would make six of us on level three – if you count the fact that Koenig sleeps in a room on this level whenever he's not off working – and you said that each level had seven bedrooms."

"Yeah, that's true," Phil agreed reluctantly.

"Oh, come on," Melinda said, stepping closer to him. "I thought – no, I just _knew_ – you'd be jumping at the idea of living in the same space as _Captain America_."

"And I am… on the inside," Phil nodded. "At least a little. But… do you realize that bringing Ward and then even more people to level three means that it was just you and I here alone for only one night?"

"And as I recall, we made very good use of that time," she smirked. "Or have you forgotten already? I would be happy to remind you, if you have."

"I wouldn't mind a reminder…"

"Can Barnes stay on this level?" she bribed.

He practically whined, "No fair!"

"All is fair in love and war, Phil – and you and I are pretty good at both. So, what do you say? Another couple of roommates?"

"Fine," Phil sighed.

"Good," she replied, giving him a kiss.


	8. Chapter 8

"Long time, no see, Romanoff," Steve said, smiling as he leaned in and gave Natasha a quick hug after the jet taking them back to Kansas City was in the air.

"Hi, Steve," Natasha replied before nodding to Barnes. "Lieutenant Barnes."

"You can call me Bucky, if you want to, Natasha," Bucky smiled with what Natasha figured he thought was smolder.

"Hmm," Natasha hummed, giving him an unimpressed, thin-lipped smile as she held up her wedding-ring-containing left hand. "Married – but thanks, 'Bucky.'"

"Since when?" Steve asked with a smile that said he was genuinely happy for her.

And – thank God – without any of the awkwardness between them that Natasha had been so afraid might come up.

"Ah, since the day we met at Fury's grave, actually," Natasha smiled. "And we got pregnant a few months back, too."

"I knew I saw Barton waiting in that car for you!" Steve crowed. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks. _So_ , how did things go with Sharon…?"

Steve cringed.

"Tell me you called her," Natasha groaned as she and the two men sat down across from one another.

"I did, yes, and we went on a couple of dates before we went on our separate ways."

"My gosh, you need a social life!" she declared. "You're supposed to be his best friend, right, Bucky? You're supposed to see to this sort of thing; it's in the job description, I think."

Not that she was really such an expert on being someone's best friend.

"I try," Bucky said with a sigh, getting in on the lighthearted banter. "He's still resisting my attempts at gifting him with a social life, but," Bucky glanced sideways at Steve as he said conspiringly, "I suspect he might already have a girlfriend." Steve opened his mouth to protest, but Bucky continued on, adding, "And this is where he says no, he does not, and I tell him he can't lie to the guy who's known him since forever. Then I ask him if, since it's not a girlfriend, is it a boyfriend instead? And he gets all flustered and red and exasperated," Bucky pointed to Steve. "Like that expression right there – and stalks away, declaring that HYDRA should've just left me where they found me."

Natasha bit down on a laugh that she really didn't want to have bubbling in her chest, saying instead to Coulson as he sat down beside her after coming out from the cockpit, "I really like these two."

"You're married, remember?" Coulson replied dryly.

Steve chuckled, glancing sideways at his old war buddy as he answered, "So she's already pointed out."

"I bet they're a lot like Abbot and Costello," Natasha volunteered in reference to the two soldiers.

"Really?" Coulson asked, rolling his eyes a little before giving her a pointed look. "Because I was being put more in mind of _The Three Stooges_."

Natasha just smiled back at him. Even after having not seen him for two years previous, whenever she got Coulson to roll his eyes, she could consider her day complete.

"So," Phil said, changing the subject. "Just to bring you boys up to speed with our thoughts on our next moves, right now we're weighing the pros and cons of getting Agent Maria Hill out from under Stark and back into SHIELD. Do you remember her, Rogers? She was on the base when Loki and his alien robots took a whack at Manhattan."

"Ah…" Steve paused before shifting as he said, "Yeah, I think I remember her."

Natasha suddenly got the feeling that Steve was lying or hiding something or both.

Bucky obviously thought the same thing, because he looked at Steve and his eyes narrowed with suspicion before he asked Coulson, "Brown hair, blue eyes, by chance?"

"Yeah," Coulson answered slowly.

Natasha asked Bucky, "How'd you know that?"

"You remember that 'thing' that he claims not to have? Well, there's a couple of pictures that I've spotted in his sketchbook that beg to differ depicting –" Bucky suddenly lurched across Steve's lap and grabbed Rogers' sketchbook, flinging it at Natasha before Steve could stop him.

"That is mine!" Steve protested.

Ignoring his friend, Bucky looked over Natasha's shoulder and flipped to a certain page of the sketchbook, stopping at a pencil-drawn, full-page, colored-in portrait of none other than Agent Hill. "Depicting her. Do you know who she is?"

Natasha arched her eyebrows at Steve over the notebook's edge, smiling at the way he was blushing, and showed the drawing to Coulson.

"Yeah," Coulson drawled. "We know who she is, alright." He turned to Steve, saying almost despairingly, "And here I thought you were going to be my new good child!"

Natasha barely refrained from snorting, instead asking Steve, "So, I guess you're all in favor of her being brought back into SHIELD, then, huh?"

Steve just glared, so Bucky said – totally unfazed by the lasers that were aimed his way from his friend's blue eyes – "If he doesn't insist, I will – for his sake, of course."

Steve snorted, Natasha rolled her eyes, and Phil sighed, replying, "I'll see what I can do."

Natasha pretended to pout then, mumbling to Coulson, " _Of course_ you give Steve what _he_ wants; _he's Captain America_."

"And you're the Black Widow," Coulson replied. "I fail to see your point."

"Aw," Bucky said, laying a hand on her back. "Does Daddy play favorites with his rug rats?"

"Yes," Natasha pouted some more.

"No," Coulson protested. "And you're not my rug rats, contrary to how you are _all_ ," he glared momentarily at the still truly pouting Steve. "Acting at this moment. You are my agents, and I expect you _all_ ," here he glared at Bucky. "To act like it."

Natasha shot Bucky and Steve an ornery look, and all three simultaneously saluted their boss, grinning as they said, "Sir, yes, sir!"

"Okay," Coulson took a deep, calming breath, saying, "Since you obviously can't manage to act like agents right now, can you at least manage to act like adults? You boys are older than me, and you, Agent Romanoff, are getting ready to be a mother. Let's act like the grownups I know you're capable of being."

Natasha answered that for all three of them with a jaunty, "Sir, yes, sir!"

Coulson glared again before trying another tactic with, "Okay, if you want to act like children, then let's play the quiet game on the way back, _got it_?"

Natasha obligingly mimed zipping her lips, smiling as she realized how good it felt to be able to let loose with her friends again.


	9. Chapter 9

"It seems we have a bit of a problem…" Melinda informed Phil the moment the two of them were out of hearing range of the Playground's other occupants once they'd gotten Rogers and Barnes settled in.

"Melinda," said Phil irritably as she trailed him towards the medicine cabinet in his bathroom. "I spent the entire flight back here babysitting three juveniles; I need an aspirin and a kiss – not in that order – and then I _might_ be able to handle a problem."

Melinda obliged, giving him a quick kiss and then watching as he quickly downed a couple of pills.

"Okay," Phil said, turning to her and bracing his hands behind him against the bathroom sink. "What's the issue?"

"I've been on the phone with Maria practically all day trying to work this thing out, and she doesn't think that there's a way for her to slip out of Stark International without Tony and Pepper noticing her disappearance – not considering how high of a position she holds in the company."

Phil's eyes drifted closed and he let out a deep breath before asking her, "What do you suggest we do?"

She took a horribly long time to answer, and by then Phil knew what she was going to say before she said it. "I say we let Stark and his girl in the loop if that's what it takes. Not just for Maria, but because Stark could be a real help to us too."

"The only thing Stark is, or ever was, is a major pain in my a**," Phil declared.

"I know that, but he is a brilliant scientist – and if we're really going to rebuild SHIELD, we're going to need more than just Fitzsimmons working in the labs."

"Fine. I'll give Maria a call tomorrow morning and tell her to tell Stark and Miss Potts anything she deems necessary."

"What if Stark 'deems it necessary' to come along with her?" Melinda queried.

"Then I want golden handles on my casket," Phil said dryly. "Solid gold straight from the streets of Asgard – and a closed-casket funeral so no one has to see the hole I put in my own skull."

Melinda almost laughed at that and Phil glared at her until she schooled her features into a more appropriate expression, laying her head over on his shoulder as she said, "I'm sorry. It'll be okay, though; we're doing well – you're doing well. Things will work out, I'm sure. You'll just have to get used to having all of these adopted kids hanging around again."

Phil smiled down at her, replying, "At least I've got a kicka** step-mom for them helping me with them now."

Melinda could only wince at the very idea of her trying to play mother hen to all of these grown "juveniles."

* * *

Pepper had just stammered a lot until she'd decided to be angry that her boyfriend and the other Avengers had been put through so much unnecessary pain.

Stark had thrown things – lots of things. Some at Maria, some simply at the wall, and one particularly old vase had gone through Tony's particularly huge flat screen television. That alone would've made Stark unhappy on a bad day. Add to that the fact that Maria had just told him that Coulson had been alive these part two years, and the billionaire had disappeared down into his lab and drank himself into an oblivion from which he was not fully freed even the next evening when he and the two women landed in Playground base in Stark's private jet. The base to which Stark had decided he and Pepper _would_ be moving, multi-billion dollar company and Maria's protests be d***ed.

Hung-over wasn't the first impression Maria had wanted the man to make on his new teammates, but still, she had to try very hard not to smile directly at Steve when she saw him waiting with the rest of the group when the door to Stark's jet opened.

"Nice to see you again, Agent Hill," Coulson said, stepping up first to shake her hand. "I can call you 'agent' again, can't I, since we are getting SHIELD back off of the ground?"

Maria knew that was a bit of a jab at her past comments about SHIELD being "over," but she didn't care about that either, just nodded and smiled. "Sure thing, boss."

"I like the sound of that," Coulson smiled and turned to the others gathered around them, remarking, "You all need to take lessons from Agent Hill here."

"Only in your dreams!" Agent Barton called out to him.

Coulson rolled his eyes as he turned back to Maria, murmuring, "As you can see, very little has changed in some areas." She grinned until he added, "Now, go over there and say hello to our boy, Cap, okay? Barnes busted him on your relationship yesterday while Romanoff and I were still in the air brining them back here."

"Is it a problem?" Maria asked worriedly.

"No. As the new director of SHIELD, my first order of business was to get rid of the fraternization rules."

"I bet Agent May was happy about that," Maria murmured quietly with a smile.

Coulson replied instantly, without even a hint of surprise at being caught, "We both were. But the relationship is kind of being kept low key so far, and we'd like to keep it that way for now. Bigger things to worry about, and all that."

"Of course," Maria nodded in understanding. "Speaking of which, who exactly knows about mine and Steve's relationship?"

Coulson flinched, answering slowly, "Everyone… Barnes and Romanoff made sure the news spread like wildfire."

"Wonderful," Maria replied under her breath, trying to decide if she meant that earnestly or sarcastically as she broke away from her conversation with Coulson to go to Steve.

* * *

"You!" Tony said loudly, pointing at Coulson when he finally spotted him in the crowd. "And I are going to have words. Big time words. Words that kids shouldn't hear and live television won't air. Got me, Agent Coulson?"

"Yes, Mr. Stark," Coulson said calmly, turning to Pepper and saying as she appeared at Tony's side apologizing for his hung-over state. "We also have that room ready that you requested. You wanted it as far away from the labs as possible so he was 'less inclined to become a science hermit', right?" Tony protested as Pepper nodded tensely at his side. "Alright," Coulson said, turning to an African American man and ordering, "Agent Triplett, show Miss Potts and Mr. Stark to their room please."As Tony was dragged onto the elevator, he heard Maria apologizing just like Pepper had been, but Coulson brushed her words aside, replying a little sadly, "I expected it from some of them; they have a right to be upset."


	10. Chapter 10

After that little "grand entrance," Tony, however, felt the need to redeem himself a little bit, and prove that he hadn't actually gone off the deep end over Coulson's resurgence. He really was glad to see his old acquaintance; now he just needed to find a way to prove that he could be a valuable member of the man's ever-growing team.

"I don't see why you had to insist that we get stuck somewhere far away from the lab," Tony groused to Pepper the morning after their arrival while they sat eating cereal at the bar.

"There's an elevator to get you straight there if you want to be there, Tony," Pepper replied. "I thought being farther away might just give you a teeny bit of a reason to stay among the land of the living."

"There are already two scientists down there, right?" Tony asked, remembering snippets of what Maria had told them on the plane. "That means that I will be among the living." He finished his cereal and took his bowl to the sink, saying, "I'm going to check the lab out."

"Just… be good, Tony, okay?" Pepper asked desperately. "Maria said both of those scientists are just twenty-six. I'm thrilled with the idea of you making decent friends; just don't scar them for life – not with a physical explosion or a mental trauma, got it?"

"Oh ye of little faith," Tony said, giving her a quick kiss before he headed for the elevator.

"No, I have perfectly good faith in the fact that you are entirely too capable of causing trouble down there." Tony just rolled his eyes, not really paying attention when his girlfriend added, "Oh, and Coulson wants us all in the conference room of level seven in an hour for a team meeting."

Then the elevator doors closed and Tony began to mumble a Black Sabbath song under his breath as he descended. He stepped out and into the lab a minute later to find a man and a woman both huddled over a set of simulated blueprints. Geez, Pepper was right; they really were just kids!

Tony cleared his throat, and the duo jumped before whirling to face him – the girl on her feet and the boy in a simple wheelchair. "Hi," Tony said, waving a little as he stepped further into the room. "I don't think we got to officially meet yesterday; I'm Tony Stark."

They both shook his hand when he offered it, and the lady said, "I'm Jemma Simmons, a biochemist, and this is my partner, Leo Fitz, who is an engineer."

Tony nodded, asking, "Whatcha working on?"

"Fitz is trying to figure out a more efficient way to keep track of what's going on at the bunker's parameter," Simmons explained.

"Tell me what you've got so far, kid," Tony requested, knocking his knuckles against a handle of Fitz's wheelchair.

The boy jotted down a word in a notebook and held it up for Tony to read, his expression flickering with frustration. _Problems._

Tony's eyebrows drew together as his mind jumped onto another train of thought and he asked suddenly – and tactlessly, "You're that doctor Maria was talking about, right? The one who can't talk or walk because of a near-drowning or something?"

Fitz nodded, thankfully seeming only mildly put-out by Tony's blunt manner.

"Is that how you normally communicate then?" Tony asked with distaste as he pointed to the notebook in Fitz's lap.

"Coulson, Romanoff, and Barton are all helping us learn sign language," Simmons piped up. "He's very good and learning quickly."

"But that's only good for as many people as know the language," Tony pointed out. "Otherwise, Dr. Fitz, your means of communications are a notebook and your girlfriend just speaking for you, am I right?"

_Not my girlfriend – but yes._

Tony narrowed his eyes at the paper answering, "One: liar; if she isn't already she will be soon. Two: we're SHIELD here, people, we've got to be able to do better around this joint than just a notebook for you!"

Fitz's eyebrows drew together and his eyes brightened with curiosity as he held up what was his next question: _Like what?_

"How about…" Tony thought for a second before he had a proverbial light bulb over the head moment, declaring as if where the most obvious thing in the world – because it kind of was, "An electronic text-to-speech board!"

Simmons turned absolutely pale as she asked dumbly, "How did we not think of that?! They've got bloody _apps_ for that!"

"Yeah," Tony said. "But I still maintain that a SHIELD man deserves better than even that."

"So what sort of a device are you talking about?" Simmons inquired.

"Like one of those apps, but a step up. Do you have any recordings of his voice?"

"Me?" Simmons asked in confusion. "No – but I could ask Keonig if he knows of some sort of security camera footage kept in the bunker or something."

"Good;" Tony said approvingly. "You should go do that now."

Simmons disappeared into the elevator to go to level seven as Tony started getting comfortable at an unclaimed work table and Fitz held up his notebook, asking, _How long will it take you to build the communications device?_

"Depending on how soon your girl gets back here with the recording… how long do we have until that meeting with Phil?"

Fitz beamed and Tony couldn't help but grin back.

"If I make this for you," Tony bargained. "And I really do want to, I have one condition." Fitz raised his eyebrows and Tony said bluntly, "The first words that you make come out of this gadget are 'Jemma, I love you.' Do we have a deal?"

Fitz glanced nervously towards the door through which Simmons had just disappeared, biting his lip as he thought this through. Eventually he nodded at Tony, smiling ever so apprehensively.

"You'll do great, kid," Tony promised him. "From what I've heard of you two, it's pretty obvious that you love her – and she loves you. The words just need to be said."


	11. Chapter 11

"We'll meet you there in a second," Stark promised Jemma. "Just give me and your guy here one more minute to fiddle with this thing and then we'll go straight to Coulson's office."

Jemma looked between Stark and Fitz nervously. Both of the men were bent over the smart-phone-sized device that Tony had made and attached to the arm of Fitz's wheelchair, twin looks of concentration on their faces.

Fitz pled, _I just want to figure it out for sure before we debut it._

Jemma sighed, fixing him with what she hoped was a stern glare as she agreed, "Fine. But I mean it – one minute, literally sixty seconds, and then off to Coulson's office. Agent May doesn't like waiting for people."

As she walked out of the lab, she heard Stark ask, "Is the voice right, do you think? Are the words vocalizing correctly?"

Jemma was already far enough away that she didn't hear whether or not Fitz answered via his new toy. She walked into Coulson's office where everyone else was already gathered and explained that Fitz and Stark were "polishing a new project" and would be in momentarily. True to their promise, Stark and Fitz appeared a perfect fifty-eight seconds later.

"Can we begin now, please?" Coulson asked, arching his eyebrows at the two scientists as they found spots for themselves in the room.

"Yeah," Tony spoke up. "I've got a question. When are you going to bring Bruce in?"

"Bruce?" Phil repeated, already trying to figure out an at least halfway tactful answer to Stark's question. "As in Dr. Banner?"

"Yes, Dr. Bruce Banner," Tony answered impatiently. "Hill said that I might be called upon to make some weapons for us. Now, you know how I feel about that these days, and I can tell that you don't want to bring Bruce here anymore than I want to make more weapons. So why don't we make a deal? You bring me Bruce to work with, and I'll get you your weapons, sound good?"

"No," Melinda broke in.

"Why not?" Stark asked, looking between her and Phil.

 _How to put this delicately…_ "Stark," Phil began carefully. "Dr. Banner's Hulk is frighteningly strong. It's also unpredictable, as is what will set the Hulk off. I don't think it's wise to keep Banner – and, along with Dr. Banner, the Hulk – in an underground base. It just seems very… unsafe."

Stark took a deep breath and stood up, wiping his hands on his jeans as if to dismiss them all as he said, "Alright then. No Banner, no weapons and no Ironman. It was nice seeing you guys again. C'mon, Pep, we better be getting back to Malibu."

"You cannot possibly be serious," Agent Hill said in exasperation.

Tony's answer was a dismissive "of course I am" as he continued towards the door.

It was Melinda who stopped him in his tracks when she said, "You do know that since you know the location of this base, we have to kill you if you're not on our side, right? And that goes for your girlfriend too."

"I am on your side," Tony answered, not turning towards them, though Phil heard the thread of ice in his voice that fully acknowledged the threat he'd just been issued. "I just happen to have conditions to whether or not I stay here and work with you guys. Namely, I need someone in this base with whom I can have an intelligent, scientific conversation."

Stark may have missed the glares that Fitzsimmons was sending him from behind his back, but Phil didn't. Those glares wouldn't matter anyway, not if Stark had really made up his mind as firmly as he seemed to.

"I'll contact Dr. Banner," Phil finally conceded with a sigh. "Have a nice, long conversation with him and explain the exact situation we're in here. _If he feels comfortable with the idea,_ then we'll let him try it out down here with us, agreed? We both know I can't offer you anything better than that."

"Alright," Stark nodded, a pleased half smile, half smirk on his face as he turned back around and took his seat once again. "Fair enough."

* * *

Leo Fitz gave the wheels of his chair a particularly hard shove so that he could catch up to Jemma as she left the team meeting that had just ended. He was tempted to use the new text-to-speech device that he and Mr. Stark had made to catch her attention, but he'd made a deal with the billionaire, and no matter how much the idea petrified him, he intended to keep up his end of the bargain. It was high past time Jemma heard the words verbally affirmed, right – at least as well as he could manage it?

But what if she didn't feel the same way? She'd never actually said one way or the other before they had left the bottom of the ocean and now what with his wheelchair and all… She certainly deserved better than what he had to offer her.

As he had numerous times since his accident, Leo became lost in his thoughts – and thus was just as surprised as Jemma when he ran into her with his wheelchair from behind. She yelped his name, lost her balance, and landed squarely in his lap in the middle of the hallway, knocking the wind out of both of them.

He would've made an attempt at catching his breath under any other circumstances, but the thought didn't even cross his mind when he heard the animated voice speak up, saying the words that he had typed in before even approaching Jemma. One of them must've pushed the "translate" button when she fell on him.

"Jemma, I love you."

They both sat stock still for a long moment before she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder, making no attempt to remove herself from her perch on his knees as she asked carefully, "What did you say?"

With a trembling hand, Leo reached out and pressed the translate button again, fastening his eyes on hers as he tried to convey the truth behind the electronic words.

"Jemma, I love you."

She swung her legs over one of the arms of his wheelchair then so that she could look him more fully in the face as a slowly growing, gentle, _loving_ smile bloomed on her face. She moved so that she was cupping his face in her hands and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders to keep her steady.

Breath that Leo didn't know he'd recaptured was stalled in his throat as Jemma leaned her face a mere inch from his, whispering, "I love you, too," in the moment before she kissed him.


	12. Chapter 12

"Hello, Agent Coulson," Dr. Bruce Banner picked up the phone as he worked in his lab in Stark Tower later that afternoon and spoke calmly to the man that up until a few days ago he hadn't known was even still alive. "I confess, I've been expecting your call."

Startled by that, Coulson almost yelped out the word that he asked – "How?"

Bruce smirked as he took his screwdriver back in hand. "I have been living with Tony and Pepper since the Battle of Manhattan. Do you really think that I'm not going to be suspicious when they suddenly announce that they have to go somewhere with Maria, but they can't tell me where? And do you _really_ think that if I were to ask Tony for some information that he wouldn't tell me _everything he knew_? You know him better than that, Coulson."

"You're angry with me, too?" Coulson said with a sigh.

"I'm always angry… but sometimes more than others, yes."

"So… did Stark tell you we're trying to rebuild SHIELD?"

"And that he was going to lobby for me being recruited."

A pause and then Coulson asked, "Are you willing to give it a shot… in an underground base?"

"Put me on the housing level nearest the sky and I'll try it on for size."

"And what if your size were to miraculously… change?" Coulson asked with a thread of discomfort in his voice.

"Then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Bruce answered with confidence that he was kind of startled to actually feel. "I honestly do have more control over my friend that what you probably think I do."

"Alright then. We could use you in the labs here and Stark's being an a** without you down there to help him. Are you sure that this is a good idea, though?"

"I'll be fine, Coulson," Bruce repeated with a sigh.

"Well, in that case, do you mind if I have a couple people fly Stark's jet back to his place to pick you up tomorrow morning?"

"Sounds great," Bruce answered with a small smile, surprised to realize that he was a little excited at the idea of getting the components of his favorite "time bomb" back under the same roof.

This was definitely going to be the most interesting thing that he had ever done – or at least among the top five.

* * *

"Guess what I did yesterday?" Tony demanded once he and Bruce were settled in the passenger area of Stark's jet.

"Cured world hunger," Bruce drawled.

"No!" Tony pouted. "You're not even trying; no fair. I got into the new base, met everybody, and made a kid a text-to-speech device from scratch – it's a long story; I'll tell you in a minute – and then I convinced that same kid to admit his feelings for her to his partner!" He was like an overly excited, spoiled little kid – which Tony kind of was – when he asked, "Aren't I awesome?"

"Absolutely indescribable."

Tony either didn't catch or simply ignored Bruce's continued sarcasm as he said, "And you and I are going to be living on the same level of the base – the top level – with Pepper, just like old times."

"Tony," Bruce pointed out. "'Old times' were just three days ago."

"I know, but it feels like so much longer for some reason. I missed you, bro," Tony admitted. "Everybody's super excited to get you back with us."

Bruce smiled as he admitted, "I'm really glad to be back, Tony."

"Speaking of super! They brought in the Winter Soldier with Cap… and Legolas and Spidey! Have you heard about them yet?"

"No, Tony," Bruce answered, his smile sliding into a tolerant one as he let his best friend bombard him with all the news needed to catch him up to speed.

In times like these, having people around actually did a strangely good job of calming his nerves, and he was glad he had agreed to once again begin working with all his friends.

* * *

"Is there any way," Melinda came into Phil's bedroom and asked him later that evening. "To get Thor away from his lady friend long enough to make him willing to join up with us?"

"Who, Dr. Foster?" Phil asked. "I've been thinking about that whole situation, and I'm really not sure. Honestly, I'm really not sure that we'd have to separate the two of them."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Dr. Foster is an astrophysicist; she's got to be worth something in the labs, right? We know that having Thor would be a huge asset, so why not call him up in London and see if he's game for moving in with us without Jane, and if he's not, we can offer to take her too?"

Melinda thought this over for a minute and then shrugged before saying, "It's worth a shot."

"I know; that's why I suggested it."

Melinda rolled her eyes and threw a pillow at him from off his bed before she turned to go back to her own room for the night.

"I love you, sweetheart," he called softly after her, so that just she could hear.

"Love you too, boss man."

"Hey, I like that title! You should use it more often."

She turned around just long enough to roll her eyes in good humor one more time at his smiling face and then shut the door with a firm thud as she left. Phil just laughed as he fell into his bed.

* * *

Thor was still not one hundred percent used to some basic technology of the Midgardian realm, and so it was with some awkwardness that he spoke into Jane's landline phone the next morning, not turning down Coulson's offer, but not immediately excepting it either when he said, "I am afraid I do have others that I must hold in higher concern than even the Avengers."

"We are aware of that," Coulson answered. "Which is why we'd like to extend the offer to Dr. Foster as well - and anyone that the two of you would like to clear with me as also being a useful asset to SHIELD is welcome to come as well, for that matter."

Thor's eyes instantly darted toward the breakfast table and the three occupants there besides his Jane - Dr. Selvig, Darcy, and Ian.

"I believe I know of a few, yes," Thor agreed. "Let me discuss it with my friends today and then I shall contact you again at this time tomorrow morning with their thoughts on the matter. Is that satisfactory to you?"

"Sure, why not," Coulson agreed. "I'll look forward to your call."


	13. Chapter 13

"I don't like the idea of all five of us just heading into a lions' den like that," Selvig objected.

"We've both worked with Agent Coulson before, Erik," Thor protested. "Surely you trust him not to put us in a dangerous situation. Surely you trust me not to ask you, my friends, to go into a situation that I believe could be potentially harmful to you."

"He lied to you, Thor! You almost had a heart attack when his voice came over the phone!"

"But even in that he was trying to protect us by keeping us… in the dark... about his still being alive. You can see that, can't you?"

Selvig sighed, nearly willing to concede to the demigod's point when he asked, "Where do we four fit into this plan? Did he tell you that? You were on the phone with him for hours."

"Once we got through talking about his reappearance, he told me that he – as the new director of SHIELD – would have me working as a sort of agent, and you and Jane would be working in the labs, continuing your scientific research, and maybe even expanding upon it. Darcy and Ian would be filling in the gaps wherever they were needed at the moment as assistants for whoever required assistance."

"See, Erik," Jane said, leaning forward to lock eyes with her father figure. "It's not a problem; it's just a change of location. We'll still be doing the same things we would be doing here, we'd just be doing it in Kansas."

"With better equipment," Thor added helpfully. "I want to go, Erik. It sounds like my friends need me, and I want to be there for them… but I want to be with Jane as well."

"And I want to be with him," Jane agreed. "But I don't want to leave you here in order to do that. Do you understand that?"

"Yes, of course," Erik nodded.

Jane asked hesitantly, "Then... could you give it a chance? For us?"

Erik scrubbed at his eyes, turned to Darcy and Ian and asked, "What are you two going to do?"

"I'm going with Jane," Darcy answered instantly.

Ian added, "Then I guess I'm going to follow my boss."

Erik sighed in resignation, declaring, "Fine. If you can't beat them, join them. I'll go."

Jane jumped up from her chair and wrapped her arms around Erik's neck with a gleeful, "Thank you!"

"Don't thank me yet," Erik said, a smile nonetheless teasing at the corners of his mouth as he hugged Jane back.

Untangling herself from Erik's arms, Jane edged over to Thor and whispered to him, "What do you say we get him to those labs as soon as possible once we get to the base, huh? I bet that'd put a real smile on his face."

Thor smiled down at her in agreement. "You're right, and I'll see that it happens exactly as you say."

* * *

And so it did. When Thor and his friends flew into the base three days later, Bruce was quick to cart Selvig off to the lab while the others found rooms to occupy. Thor, Jane, Darcy, Ian, and Erik all ended up on the first floor with Tony, Pepper, and Bruce, and five more people slid into the ever-growing group.

As had become a habit, after the arrival of someone new at the base, Coulson called a group meeting for everyone to get things ironed out and further explained where necessary.

"Okay," Coulson said, taking what had become his customary seat in the conference room of the base's office level while everyone else found seats around the table. "Here's the tally. We currently have twenty-one people living here in the base and willing to work for SHIELD. All of you are at this table, and to be entirely frank, I can't think of anyone else who we might add to this group. I really can't tell you who else I can trust enough because I don't know. We're still trying to sort out who was actually HYDRA and who isn't. So if you know of anyone who you believe would be 125% with us here and willing to work for SHIELD, then now is the time to speak up."

Erik, who had taken a seat at the table beside Bruce, leaned over and whispered something in the doctor's ear. Bruce shook his head, but Phil caught the quiet exchange and asked, "Do you gentlemen have a name?"

"No," Bruce said at the same time as Selvig declared, "Yes."

"Can I… hear it?" Phil asked after an expectant pause.

"No," Bruce repeated with an edge of finality while shooting a glare at Selvig.

Selvig looked across Bruce to Tony as he said to Phil, "We'll see if we can't get him to see the light on this particular person."

"Can I ask what sort of a role this person would fill?" Coulson asked, not sure why he was tolerating their secretiveness, nor even if he should.

"Another scientist," Selvig volunteered.

"Okay," Phil nodded, letting them off of the hook as he looked around at the others around the table and asked, "Do we have any other ideas?"

Thor spoke up slowly and carefully, as if he wasn't sure he should bring it up. "There are a handful of Asgardians who would be willing to follow me here to earth if they believed we could use their assistance."

"Do these people have names?"

"The Warriors Three and Sif – who I believe you've met – are the ones I'm nearly certain would come. There are a couple of others that might require a little more negations, but I could look into it."

"So that makes a grand tally of what? Twenty-seven?" Phil glanced at Bruce, hazarding, "Twenty-eight?"

"Yeah," May said.

"And your getting those six people requires you to return to Asgard, right?" Phil double-checked with Thor, who nodded. "Well…" Again Phil thought as he spoke, deciding, "Whenever – preferably as soon as possible – you feel like going to talk to them about it, you're absolutely free to do so."

Thor nodded thoughtfully, declaring, "I shall conceivably be gone for a week, but if you have no objection, I shall return to Asgard on the morrow."

"Wonderful."

Thor nearly flinched, thinking of Selvig's words from earlier in the week. _Don't thank me yet._


	14. Chapter 14

"If you truly believe that we could be of use to you…" Volstagg said slowly, eyeing Thor across the table where the two warriors sat in the palace of Asgard with Fandral, Hogan, and Sif.

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't," Thor assured them.

"Then I'm in agreement," Fandral spoke up. "We the Warriors Three swore fealty to Thor Odinsson when we were all just children, but it was an oath none the less, and one that I intend to make good on. If you say we're needed on Midgard, then that's good enough for me; Odin still had plenty of soldiers at his dispense."

With that, Volstagg and Hogan nodded their silent agreement to what Fandral had said, and four pairs of male eyes were turned onto the one woman at the table.

Sif rolled her eyes, declaring with a grin, "I've met this Son of Cole before, and he's a good man. I wouldn't want him to have to mind you all at the same time, so I suppose I'd best come along to corral you myself."

Thor smiled then as he looked around at his friends and said, "Wonderful!" His smile slid a little bit as he continued, "You may well have a few days to prepare for relocating, depending upon how a conversation with my father goes."

"'Conversation'?" Fandral repeated curiously.

"I have a couple more Asgardians in mind that I'd like to come to SHIELD with us, but they're more closely under the king's power, and it may take some time to convince him that it's a good idea to let them accompany us."

The Warriors Three nodded unquestioningly and dispersed, but Sif stayed where she was for a minute longer than the trio, staring at Thor intently until he met her eyes warily. She knew what duo he was considering, and they both knew it.

Alone in the room with the king's son, Sif contradicted his idea softly, insisting, "That's not a good idea, Thor."

"She can keep him in line when they're together."

"Since when?!"

"She _is_ capable of bringing out the best in him, I know; I've seen it with my own eyes many a time over the decades."

"She won't even _speak_ to him, Thor; not for as much as he's hurt her."

Thor's eyes darkened with confusion as he responded, "Despite what I now know him to be capable of, I never thought he would actually lay his hand on her." His brows drew together as he asked, "He hasn't, has he?"

Sif gave him a scathing glare that informed him that he had just completely misinterpreted her meaning before she heaved a sigh and pushed her chair back from the table, declaring, "The mighty Thor will do as he wishes despite my words, so I'd best just spend my energy on preparing myself for taking up residence in Midgard. If you'll excuse me, my prince?"

Thor sighed, rubbing his eyes to refocus himself before he went into the throne room.

A welcoming smile from the king met him when he strode through the throne room doors, and Thor's spirits lifted a bit, allowing him a shred of hope that Odin might approve of his plans.

"I had heard that you had returned to your home realm," Odin began. "And I can only imagine t hat means that some sort of business brings you here. So what might I do for you?"

"I'm sorry that you've already come to expect so little from my visits, Father," Thor answered with a small smile.

"But what?"

Thor decided to let Odin have his way and jumped straight into the business at hand, saying, "But I require the acquisition of my favored band of Asgardians and your permission to permanently take them with me to Midgard to help in guarding the Midgardians."

"And this band would include which warriors precisely?" Odin asked, sitting back in his throne.

"The exact warriors that I desire are the Warriors Three and Lady Sif, who have already agreed to accompany me…"

"Obviously I'll grant them permission. It would most likely be futile for me to resist if they wish to go with you." Odin said drily before narrowing his eyes perceptively upon his son as he said, "But there is more on your mind, my son. What is it? Or, more accurately, _who_ is it?"

Thor resisted the urge to take a deep breath before he said, trying not to show his hesitation, "Loki and Sigyn."

Odin's gaze hardened a bit as it always did at the mention of his adopted son, and he gripped the arms of his throne. "Loki Laufeyson is meant to spend his days rotting in the dungeon that he currently inhabits, not only for his crimes against Midgard, but surely you remember that he tried to take over even Asgard? Even succeeded for a bit? Remember?"

"Yes, of course I remember," Thor said. "But surely you can acknowledge that someone like Loki would have so much more utility doing a job such as the one that I'm proposing? And with Loki's wife accompanying him, he'll be all the more likely to cooperate."

Odin stared long and hard at Thor, thinking this all through before he finally, finally decided, " _If_ by some miracle of the Norns Loki is willing to accompany you, you may take him with you – on a trial period of two weeks. After that time, I want a report brought to me of his so-called 'utility' in SHIELD to judge whether or not he should remain there. If Sigyn wishes to go as well, then I, of course, have no objection. The poor child could use something to occupy her beyond worrying about those who are beyond saving."

Ignoring the obvious slight against Loki in favor of relief at being given his way, Thor nodded, even managing a small smile as he thanked his father and then turned on his heel to leave the throne room. Now he had to make a stop by his sister-in-law's chambers.


	15. Chapter 15

"Hello, stranger."

Thor caught himself just short of wincing at the coolness in Sigyn's voice when he pushed open the door to her chambers to find her seated at the loom in her parlor. He moved past the door and let it swing closed behind him, but didn't go any further into the room. Her eyes stayed calmly on her work, both of them apparently waiting for the other to speak.

Sigyn spoke first, asking lightly, "Have you visited Loki on this trip?"

"No," Thor answered, not sure if or why she was displeased with him, but hoping that his answer wouldn't make it worse.

"Do you intend to? He knows you are here, after all."

Thor chose not to point out that he doubted that Loki _cared_ if he was there, explaining instead, "I wanted to speak to you first."

"About what?"

"SHIELD."

"Ah. Heimdall said a few days ago that you had taken up with them once again. But why would you need to discuss the organization with me?"

"I wish for you to join SHIELD as well," Thor answered bluntly.

Sigyn's hands stopped in their occupation as she froze for a second before turning on her stool to face him, asking, "And why, pray tell, would I do that?"

"For Loki," Thor answered instantly.

"How would that benefit him?" she asked, arching a blonde eyebrow with a look in her eyes that oozed steeliness despite her petite frame.

"I have convinced Father that Loki would be a benefit to SHIELD, and Father agreed to release him from his imprisonment to go to work with us – but only if you were to accompany Loki to help keep him in check."

"I take it you haven't spoken to my husband about this possibility?"

"No; whether or not he's allowed to go hinges upon whether or not you're willing to go."

"Fine position you've put me in then, isn't it?" Sigyn smirked. The woman before him was a much harder person than the Sigyn that Thor was used to encountering, but neither one of them doubted her ultimate loyalty to her husband, and it was that loyalty that at last made her sigh and agree, "If Loki is willing to go, then I am willing to accompany him."

A nearly involuntary grin split across Thor's face as he declared, "Wonderful! Now I only have to go convince Loki… and with you on my side, I dare believe that will be easier than it might've otherwise."

"Despite what is being said by your precious quartet of warriors?" Sigyn queried with another smirk.

"I… am unsure of that which you speak."

"You're also a bad liar," Sigyn answered, rising from her seat. "Those outside of Loki and myself have no right to judge my marriage, much less are they aware of the actual state of it. _I dare_ say that Loki might perhaps even take better to this idea of yours if it were to come from me personally. Would you mind if I were to the one to go speak to him about it? Heimdall will, I'm sure, have you informed if he believes I could use your assistance in presenting it to him."

Thor nodded and held the door to her chambers open for his sister-in-law as she went past while he said, "Very well."

"Don't thank me yet," Sigyn muttered.

Thinking back to when the same thought had run through his own head when talking to Agent Coulson, Thor flinched.

* * *

"Hello, beloved." Sigyn barely refrained from shivering at the mocking sneer in her husband's voice as she appeared around the edge of his cell. "What brings you here? Let me guess; Thor sends his regards but couldn't bear to come see me himself?"

"Thor," Sigyn responded, her defenses instantly raised by the nearly default hatred in Loki's voice. "Sends you an option outside of life in this cell."

This raised Loki's eyebrows and caught his attention, causing him to request, "Do tell."

"The Warriors Three and Sif are going with Thor to work for SHIELD on Midgard. Thor desires for you and I to join them as well."

Loki's bitter laugh made her jump, and his amused expression slipped a bit before he asked, "Has Daddy's boy run his idea by his father yet?"

"He has," Sigyn nodded.

Now Loki seemed to truly consider what he was being told, turning his back to her to pace to the opposite wall of his cell. When he turned back towards her he asked, "Is your presence a necessity?"

"Why?" she asked instantly and a bit sharply as she tried not to be hurt by the implication that her "presence" was undesirable in the eyes of the man that she had once loved – still loved, really, despite herself.

"He's talking about going into an ongoing war. That's what Coulson's SHIELD would be – an ongoing wager of war against evil."

"And?"

Loki cocked his head to the side, staring at her, and Sigyn saw when something besides hatred – perhaps confusion? – came into his eyes, if only for a moment.

"And," he admitted slowly, glancing towards his feet as if he were embarrassed and shocking her to the toes of her own feet with his words. "I do not wish for you to be harmed. Least of all in a war that has nothing to do with you."

It was her turn to laugh disbelievingly at him, and she did then, reminding him, "But you have everything to do with me. If this is your way off of Asgard and out of a prison, then it is mine as well." She stepped up to the very edge of the magic-infused pane of glass that separated him, letting him get a clear view of her suddenly blazing eyes as she said, "Do not think for half of a second Loki _Laufeyson_ that your actions in the past have not affected my life. _They have._ I cannot safely emerge from my own quarters without fear for my life since you tried taking Odin's throne. I have to let one of my attendants – the _very_ few that remain unquestionably loyal to me – eat off of my plate before I do lest I ingest poison. _All_ of my friends have abandoned me, rumors run rampant of things for which I would be fit to lose my title, and I haven't gone anywhere unaccompanied for the past year." Realizing that her hands were fisted so tightly she was leaving imprints on her palms, Sigyn slammed her hands against the glass – mimicry of Loki's discussion with the Black Widow that none of them noticed in the moment – and was rewarded with seeing her husband start and flinch violently. "So let me inform you, husband dearest, if you think you are the only one who has been imprisoned, _you are wrong_. If you think you are the only one who wants away from Asgard, _you are wrong_ , and if you think that I am not entirely capable of using tactics that you would not appreciate to get you to agree to go to Midgard, you are wrong there too. In my eyes, asking you is nothing but a formality which you will play along with. _We are going_. Am I understood?"

And Loki was so startled by her furious speech that even his silver tongue was without words, leaving him with no choice but to nod meekly. Sigyn nodded sharply in return and sweetly murmured "good" before leaving with a smile on her face to give Thor a report of her husband's decision.


	16. Chapter 16

"They're _going_ to try and kill him, you know," Fandral said to no one in particular as the group – Thor, the Warriors Three, Sif, Loki, and Sigyn – walked on the Rainbow Bridge a couple days later, going to Heimdall and, through the gatekeeper's powers, Midgard.

"Who?" Sif asked dryly, glaring at Thor and knowing she was the only one present who would get away with the comment. "Loki, or Thor for bringing him in at all?"

Thor rolled his eyes, but everyone knew that he had to be questioning his good judgment where Loki was concerned – of course he was. "Then I suppose we'll just have to protect him, won't we?"

"Will we now?" Fandral asked, just as displeased as Sif, but he got a sharp glare from the thunder god for it.

Thor opened his mouth to answer, but Loki responded first, saying impatiently,"I _can_ defend myself, you know, especially since Odin has returned to me the full powers of my magic."

"Minus those that were given you by the Chituari," Sigyn reminded him smoothly. "Which were, as you know, the only reason you were able to control any of the Midgardians at all. That precious staff you carry now has a much less powerful magic store than it did the last time you visited Midgard, does it not?"

Loki bit the inside of his cheek and glared at Sigyn. When she caught his displeased expression out of the corner of her eye, his wife only smiled to herself. Loki felt a by-now not unfamiliar sting somewhere in the general vicinity of his heart as he realized once again how much he had hurt his wife. He hadn't meant to. The Chitauri had made him do what he had in New York, and, unlike a good number of others, Sigyn believed him when he said that. But her problems – and her problems with him – had begun even before that. When he had jumped off of this very bridge, he'd left a wife behind, as well as a handful of sons. He even had a daughter residing somewhere in the Nine Realms, but her mother, Angrboda, had sent her out into she "knew not where" when the child was but an infant, claiming she had no desire to raise a female. That incident had been the end of his even speaking to his mistress, and now it appeared that he had lost his wife as well.

At this point, when he realized how thoroughly Sigyn was guarding her heart from him, he truly didn't know if he cared whether he lived or died. That was probably a good thing, considering where they were going.

"Ready?" Thor asked the group.

While Loki had been thinking through the pathetic state of his family life, they had reached Heimdall and were now on the cusp of being transported to Midgard.

 _No_ , Loki realized, feeling a sudden flash of helpless panic as the Rainbow Bridge's magic surrounded them.

The next thing he knew, the temperature had dropped by a few degrees and the Asgardians were huddled together, effectively surrounding him – guarding him from immediate viewing of the people who had been waiting for them, he realized. Due in equal parts to the blinding qualities of the Rainbow Bridge's transport and his own panic, Loki was slower to register his surroundings than his fellow travelers.

One: unlike his traveling companions, who were all standing around him with their weapons not drawn but very present, he had landed on his hands and knees. Glorious.

Two: they had landed in what was presumably the underground SHIELD bunker, judging by the temperature drop and the cement walls surrounding them. He would have to rely on teleportation if he needed an immediate escape route, then.

Three: the weapons that had not two seconds before been resting placidly in the hands of his would be protectors were now fully at the ready – as were plenty of weapons in the hands of those staring at the group. His new so-called teammates. Perfect.

" _Stop_!"

Loki's head jerked around to the source of the sudden scream. He sat back on his knees, peering between Thor and Hogan's waists to verify who the demand had come from. Jane Foster was standing between the two extremely distinct groups, hands raised as if those very appendages might stop the impeding of a bullet.

"Please stop," Jane repeated, her voice just a touch less frantic than it had been a moment ago. She turned to face the SHIELD agents and asked, "Do you think that Thor would bring people here who would actually hurt us?"

A long silence during which no one moved followed her question, then Dr. Selvig stepped to the front of the crowd, clutching a gun that looked very out of place in his hands, and said, "I think that Thor wants his brother back so badly that he's willing to dilute himself into thinking that this is a good idea."

"But I think it is a good idea," Jane said. "I told you, remember, how Loki helped to protect me from Maliketh?" Dr. Selvig looked past Jane, meeting Thor's gaze with betrayal and a fair touch of terror in his eyes, but Jane saw the second when the validity of her statement shook him, and continued trying to convince him and the others in general, "Listen. Give him a chance, okay? If you don't want to take Thor's word on Loki, then take mine. I'm about as evenly divided as it gets around here. Basically, my big brother caused my father to pretty much have some temporary insanity issues. I get that he's done some bad things, and believe me, I have my own issues with him, but I've also seen that he can be a good guy when given a chance. Please… can we give him that chance? Please?"

Proceeding Jane's rather astonishing speech, Loki counted how many guns remained raised. Agent Romanoff's, an Asian female agent's, and Dr. Selvig's. But then… Loki didn't see Barton in the crowd at all. That was certainly a touch worrisome.


	17. Chapter 17

Seeing the same things he did, Jane began to speak again, this time individually addressing each one still at the ready among the SHIELD agents. Nearest her, Dr. Selvig was treated to a soft "please, Erik, stop. If I thought he was going to hurt you again, I would kill him myself." The physicist stared deep into the eyes of the girl he'd helped raise before shaking his head as he lowered his gun, still eyeing Loki where he remained kneeling on the ground. The antsy god had better cover from bullets when his head was level with the main body masses of those currently protecting him.

"Natasha, come on," Jane called out to the redhead. "I suspect there are people with Thor who really, really don't want to see what you're about to do."

Loki's eyes widened as he caught what he thought was a reference to Sigyn. But how did Jane know that he was even married? Had Thor thought to tell her? Loki had gotten the impression that the crown prince didn't like to talk about his disowned little brother.

"Oh, really?" the Asian agent's aim shifted slightly as she spoke, changing who a bullet would hit.

Sigyn.

Loki scrambled to his feet, desperately looking around for his staff in the same second that Agent Romanoff reached out and grasped the other woman's wrist, shaking her head slightly. Asgardian hearing alone picked up the redhead's, "Not even he deserves that sort of pain, May."

"Turn about is fair play," the woman, May, said tersely. Natasha just stared at her, and it wasn't until Agent Coulson moved and put his hand on May's shoulder that the Asian dropped her gun into Coulson's outstretched hand while informing Agent Romanoff, "Pregnancy is turning you soft."

"Pregnancy?" Thor repeated, not relaxing but trying to appear as such while attempting to change the subject. "I did not hear of this news before I returned to Asgard. Congratulations, Lady Natasha, Agent Barton."

That was when Thor looked up into the rafters, to the man that Loki had been motionlessly searching for but hadn't been able to find. Agent Barton was squatting on a beam high above their heads, and Loki – searching the corners of the room to see if he might be able to feel a remaining thread of the magic that had been forced into the agent's body – hadn't thought to "poke" upwards.

He did so now, just to check for the possibility of magic, and was unsurprised in the end to feel nothing at all from his magic. If indeed any remained somewhere in Barton – which he doubted – it was of the Chitauri variety to begin with, and was thus no longer available to Loki's senses. But there had been an unsuspected magic signature in the room, Loki recalled, which he had at the exact moment he'd felt it been too preoccupied to truly pay attention to.

Now he directed his magic back onto the far edge of the group of SHIELD agents, curious as to whom he might find the weak magic signature belonged to. The thread in his mind plunged into the one man in the unrecognizable trio that stood at the back. It wasn't his, as Loki had suspected it wouldn't be, judging by the man's wheelchair. This unknown signature contained blood from someone born on an entirely different planet besides Midgard, and Midgardians were the weakest of the races known to the Nine Realms. This man was a Midgardian, and thus not the owner of the magic signature. Neither was the woman who stood behind him, gripping the handles of his chair. So it must be the other woman, Loki surmised, probing for – and momentarily connecting to – a strand of the woman's magic.

The woman – still practically an infant when one compared her number of years to his own – seemed to be in her early twenties, had brunette hair, brown eyes, and a complexion that didn't lend itself to any one race of people from any particular realm. He probed carefully at her magic, the fact that she had a magic signature at all making her many times more interesting than she would otherwise be to him.

What struck him first about her signature was how very weak it was. Magic, properly harnessed – as was the case when one was born with an inclination towards it, as he had been, or paternity well-versed in it, which must be her case – became a nearly physical part of one's mind, and tended to occupy a small, almost subconscious hovel in said mind until such time as it was needed. Loki had the capability of being able to envision where in one's mind that hovel was located, and had found that its location – whether farther back amongst the cobwebs of infantile memories or at the fore among the oft-used knowledge of one's own personality – indicated how often the magic was used. By those indicators, Loki dared to believe that this girl's magic had _never_ been used, if she even knew that she possessed it at all.

 _Then why is she here?_ he wondered. _Who is she?_ How had Agent Coulson got his hands on her, let alone convinced her to join his little band of misfits?

Only… they weren't such misfits as he would've liked to believe, he realized, looking around at them from his still reasonably safe position surrounded by his travelling companions. There were good scientists here, and even better potential SHIELD agents. But where exactly did this young woman fit into the equation? Who was she?

His magic's precarious connection with hers slipped away, and he tried to reconnect the strands once again, getting only one fleeting realization before the connection was lost and he was left without enough energy to try for a third linking.

It took more from him than most realized to control his magic so thoroughly and in these surroundings he'd been a fool to employ it so uselessly. Only when he swayed on his feet with sudden fatigue did he resist the urge to try again, for the impression that he'd just gotten was an extremely riveting one.

Cold. Her subconscious was cold… and not in the emotional sense of the word. He realized it as being like his own "magic hovel" – which he now knew was that of a Jotun. This unknown brunette was a Jotun underneath a longstanding cosmetic spell and she most likely didn't even realize it.

 _He_ realized something in that moment though, a sudden flash of insight, and even if his own fatigue wouldn't have sent him to his knees, that combined with this abrupt knowledge of who she was had him doing just that as blackness fell upon him.

After he crumpled to the floor but before he lost consciousness, he was left with just enough time to mumble, "Oh, Hel…"


End file.
